Selective Racial Attitudes among Korean Immigrants: Protective White Supremacy versus Protection of Bloodlines

• In Event: Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 11: Immigration, Legal Status, and Incorporation

Abstract

Along with the growth of Korean population in the US since the 1965 Immigration Act, scholars have paid attention to interracial and intercultural marriages among Korean and other Asian immigrants as a part of immigrant integration. Although a growing body of research has empirically investigated various aspects of intermarriage over time, little is known about whether and how immigrant parents’ attitudes toward intermarriages has infused their children’s upbringing and to what extent the expectation of intergenerational relations has affected or will influence interethnic family formation among Korean immigrant families. Given the traditional notion of filial norms among Korean immigrants, children’s decisions about marriage and their choice of spouse have important implications for parents’ receipt of elder care. To fill this gap, using qualitative data from in-depth interviews with 53 Korean immigrant parents, this study explores the following research questions: (1) how do Korean immigrant parents talk about intermarriage, (2) how do they instill their beliefs about intermarriage into their children’s upbringing, and (3) how do traditional filial norms, including traditional gendered norms of elder care responsibility, affect attitudes toward intermarriage differently for sons and daughters? Findings show negative attitudes toward interracial family formation among Korean immigrant parents. The racial preferences in the current study revealed the underlying cultural values of Confucian familism and the different expectations for sons and daughters regarding intergenerational relationships in Korean immigrant families.

Author

• Byung Soo Lee, SUNY-Buffalo